Discussion in Toronto: What next in Iran for revolution and revolutionaries?

On Thursday, 21st January, around 35 people gathered in a hall at the University of Toronto’s Galbraith Building to discuss the rapid political developments in Iran, the next steps for the process, and the role that should be played by revolutionaries.

This discussion was organized by the Canadian Marxists of Fightback. There were three invited speakers: Farshad Azadian, a Toronto youth community activist and a founding member of the Afghan-Iranian Youth Network of Ontario; Rahman Nejat, a Central Committee member of the Communist Party of Iran and its Kurdistan wing, Komalah; and Alex Grant, Editor of Fightback. Each guest spoke briefly and then, a wider discussion amongst the room followed.

Farshad, who is of Iranian origin but was born in Canada, spoke of how he, and other activists in Canada, had become inspired by the movement in Iran. He talked about recent quarrels with a lot of “liberals” who were mad at the movement for “going too far,” and who wished that the movement would be “non-violent”. Farshad explained the need for the movement to fight back against the forces of the regime and overthrow it, if it was to prevent the massive state violence.

Rahman went back to the history of past 30 years and talked about recurring crimes of the regime that started long before the current movement. For example, he touched on the summer of 1988, when the regime executed thousands of militants and socialists simply because they refused to renounce their beliefs.

Alex compared the situation in Iran to the last days of the hated Tsarist regime in Russia. The equivalent to the February Revolution could come anytime soon and it is the job of revolutionaries to be ready for it. Alex defended his vision of a socialist Iran and a socialist Middle East as a possible and desirable result of the Iranian Revolution.

A general discussion followed where a lot of different opinions were discussed. The setup of the event was more of a circle discussion rather than a speaker-attendee format; this led to almost everyone in the room speaking. Many, but not all, of the participants were Iranians, some young newcomers to Canada, some young second-generation immigrants and some old militants from different communist organizations who had been in exile for a few decades. Interestingly, a lot of common views were shared among some of them, falsifying the clichéd view of some in the émigré community that talk about a “generational gap” between the “old” leftists and the new generation in Iran. Also, activists and revolutionaries from different movements in Canada were present and contributed to the discussion; notably, there were also workers and shop stewards from the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the Ontario Public Services Employees Union, in addition to students from all three universities of the city: University of Toronto, York University, and Ryerson University.

Afterwards, delicious Persian food was served for dinner and everybody continued mingling and discussing and debating the revolution in Iran.

All in all, Thursday’s discussion helped all of the participants to think and engage more about the movement in Iran and be ready for its colossal march forward that could have great implications for the revolutionaries in Iran, the region, and around the world.